The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-10-01


further, provided that no liability
or expenditure shall be incurred
without the approval in writing Of
the Commander-in-Chief' etc. This
confers the authority TO incur ex-
penditure solely on the Commander
in-Chief, and it is nowhere expressly
given to the Secretary. The Com
mander-in-Cbief is further required
to 'cause proper vouchers for the
same (the eXpenditure) to accom-
pany each requisition for draft
upon the Public Treasury, which
voucher shall be retained by the
Secretary" This would imply that
the Commander-in-Cdief is to send
a requisition for draft to the
Secretary who is to make the draft
on the Treasury. But it is incon-
sistent with the previous part of
this section and with section |,
which, as we have seen, confer the
power on the Secretary merely of
approving the drafts, and not Of
drawing them.
1t is difficult to make sense out
of this law. 1t is absurd to require
the acceptance and approval by
the Secretary Of a draft which he is
himself to draw, and it is equally
absurd to make the written approval
of the COMMANDMENTS Chief the only
authority for the expenditure of
money or mourning of liability and
at the same time to require the APP
prevail of the Secretary upon drafts
for their payment. If the Com
mander-in-C Chief has authorized the
mourning of any liability the law is
satisfied and the Secretary must
approve"
In our opinion the Act does not
invest the Secretary Of War and of
the Navy or any other Cabinet Min
lister with any control of the dis
bursements for account of the mill
tary or naval organization. But a
law which places the responsibility
for the disbursement of public mo-
MES beyond the control of any res
ponsible Minister of the Crown, is
not by that fact unconstitutional.
1t may be unwise to do so and the
Legislature may not have intended
it in this case. Still it is not I'M
precedented. By the terms of Sec
ton 40 of the Act regulating the
Bureau of Public Instruction (Com-
piled Laws p. 213) the Board of
Education is "invested with full
power to apportion and disburse the
various monies and avails devoted
to the promotion of public educa-
tion."
BY Section 8 of the Auditor-Gen-
erals Act (psge GIL Compiled
Laws) "every account shall be con-
sidered duly authorized that is in
accordance with any eeiSting ia,o
or regulation, or has been directly
sanctioned by one or other of the
responsible Ministers of the Crown,
and covered by any Appropriation
Act in force at the time of pay
ment."
The latter part of Section 4 of the
Act under consideration reads that
appropriations for defraying the
cost of the Kings Guard, volunteer
or other military or naval organiza-
ton, under and by virtue of any law
or enactment in force in this King
dom, shall be expended and ac-
counted for as provided for by this
Act." If the Act be considered as
unconstitutional and imperative in
respect to the disbursement of the
military and naval appropriations
by reason of there being no legal
Commander-in-Chie to incur liabi-
lily and disburse the funds, there
will be no difficulty in resorting then
to the Appropriation Bill. The
items for military are included in
this Act in the Department of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, who
can draw upon these appropriations
on his ministerial responsibility.
The third reason alleged is thus
stated, "That Section of said Act
in the second paragraph thereof pur-
ports to appropriate for the purposes
of carrying this Act into effect the
sum of twenty-one thousand dollars
for each biennial period, thus pur-
porting in effect to bind succeeding
Legislatures to the support of the
purposes set forth in the Act.
The paragraph referred to reads,
"There shall be appropriated and
applied to such purpose from monies
in the Public Treasury not othericiSe
appropriated, the sum of twenty
one thousand dollars for each bien-
NAL PERIOD"
We take it that the words "not
otherwise appropriated" mean not
appropriated by the general Appro-
priation Bill which is authorized by
the 18th Article of the Constitution.
"The Legislature votes the appro-
priations biennially' &c. And there
is force in the view that monies APP
propriated by law, the item for
which is not in the Appropriation
Bill, cannot be drawn except from a
surplus in the Treasury after all the
items in the Appropriation Bill have
been met. In this country this con-
dition of the Treasury could not be
ascertained until the close of the